1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuse holder, into which a blade type fuse, with blade terminals protruding from its body, is fitted.
2. Related Art
A fuse fitting device, into which a blade type fuse is fitted, is known. This device comprises a block of synthetic resin, and connecting terminals, which are inserted from below into a chamber in the block and fitted to a lance of the block. When this fuse fitting device is to be used, electric wires are connected to the connecting terminals, these connecting terminals are inserted into the chamber of the block and fitted to the lance, a fuse is inserted from above into the chamber of the block, and the blade terminals of the fuse are fitted into the connecting terminals to make connection (for example, refer to Japanese Patent unexamined publication gazette Heisei 6-150806).
When a plurality of fuses are to be fitted into this fuse fitting device, a new block must be newly designed whenever the number of fuses to be used is modified. It is inevitable to produce a mold for the block in each occasion, and in turn, the production of the fuse fitting device is costly.
The present invention was made in view of these points, and one objective of the invention is to propose a fuse holder, wherein a holder housing is combined with contacts and a plurality of which can be coupled together, use these fuse holders, mount a required number of these fuse holders on a printed circuit board, load the printed circuit board in a casing or the like and produce a fuse fitting device, and easily realize a fuse fitting device for any number of fuses and reduce the production cost of the fuse fitting device. Other objectives include to reduce the production cost by adopting fork-shaped contacts, and to guarantee high performance of the fuse fitting device by supporting these contacts by the holder housing and preventing the contacts from being pried.
To accomplish these objectives, the present invention is a fuse holder, into which a blade type fuse, with blade terminals protruding from the body thereof, is fitted, said fuse holder comprising a holder housing having wide walls at the front and the rear and narrow walls on the right and the left and forming, with these walls, a chamber, which will hold the blade terminals of a fuse inserted from the top side and at least a part of the body of the fuse, two coupling parts, which are provided on the holder housing to disconnectably fit the holder housing onto holder housings of two other adjacent fuse holders, and two contacts, each of which has an intermediate part fixed to the holder housing, a connecting part, at one end, extending into the chamber to fit with a blade terminal, and a leg, at the other end, extending out of the holder housing to be soldered or press-fitted onto a printed circuit board.
When a fuse is fitted into the holder housing of this fuse holder, the blade terminals and at least a part of the body of the fuse will be held in the chamber, and the blade terminals will be fitted into the connecting parts of the contacts. When the fuse holder is coupled, by the coupling parts, to other adjacent fuse holders and the legs of the contacts are soldered or press-fitted onto a printed circuit board, the required number of fuse holders, into which fuses have been fitted, will be mounted on the printed circuit board. When conductive parts such as electric wires are connected to the pattern of the printed circuit board, the fuses will be electrically connected to the conductive parts. When the printed circuit board is loaded into a casing or the like, a fuse fitting device will be produced. When this fuse holder is used, a fuse fitting device can be made with ease for any number of fuses to be used without newly designing a block. Hence the production cost is reduced. To produce a fuse fitting device, a plurality of the fuse holders being coupled to each other with the coupling parts may be mounted onto the printed circuit board before fitting a fuse into each fuse holder.
Accordingly, with the use of the fuse holder of the present invention, a fuse fitting device can be produced easily for any number of fuses to be used by coupling fuse holders of the present invention by the coupling parts, mounting the fuse holders onto a printed circuit board and loading the printed circuit board in a casing or the like, and in turn, the production cost of the fuse fitting device can be reduced.